Revenge
by lovesrainscent
Summary: Revenge is a dish best served cold.  Nobody understands this better than Yoshino.


**Title: Revenge  
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**Author: Lovesrainscent**

**Rating: T**

**Summary: **Revenge is a dish best served cold. Nobody understands this better than Yoshino.**  
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**Disclaimer: _I do not own Naruto or these characters and stand to make no profit from posting this story._  
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**Revenge**

Shikamaru wonders if his mom knows what she's doing. Or has she simply gone crazy? It's bad enough with the flowers and vegetables planted so far away from the house. The place is beyond troublesome to get to not to mention creepy as hell, a right royal pain in the ass and he'd chosen it for a reason. For years now, ever since she found out about it, she's been drawn there in a way he doesn't begin to understand. But when she wanted to take his children there for a _picnic_ of all things, that's when he put his foot down. Or at least tried to. Curiously he's gotten very little back up from either his dad or Temari. Temari doesn't seem to think it is dangerous_ or_ creepy. Odd perhaps but not creepy. Dad is Dad about the whole matter. Whatever makes Mom happy makes Dad's life easier so he's inclined to go along with her on the matter. Outmanned, unable to stand against all three of them, Shikamaru relents and wonders if may be he's the one going crazy.

Shikaku's pretty sure his wife knows what she's doing. He doesn't see the need for it but he also doesn't see the need to worry about it like his son does. Shikaku and Yoshino both have confidence in Shikamaru's abilities. His trap is secure and will remain so through the years. Hidan's not getting out, not now or ever. Shikaku chalks it up to inexperience. Shikamaru's not been married that long and he's not been a father that long. And he's certainly never been a mother. Not that Shikaku has either. But he's been around his _son's_ mother a lot longer than Shikamaru has been around the mother of his own children. Shikaku won't claim to understand it but he's certainly observed Yoshino enough to know that what she felt, what she's _feeling_ is far deeper and more visceral than his own emotions are capable of with respect to the matter. Whoever said hell hath no fury like a woman scorned had obviously never seen a kunoichi who has been given a captive audience of the man who tried to murder her son.

Yoshino knows exactly what she's doing. She tells _him_ so every time she's out there. And she _knows_ he can hear her. It's too dark for him to see and the only thing he can feel taste or smell is the dirt around him. But he can _hear. _ And he can't do a damn thing about it. She tells him what flowers are in bloom as she cuts them for arrangements she'll make back at the house. She tells him what vegetables are in season and what dishes she's going to prepare. She tells him how many deer she can see at the edge of the forest or how beautiful the sunset is. Today, as Temari arrives for the first time with the children Yoshino whispers to him that the new sounds he will hear will be the sounds of her Shikamaru's children's little feet running over the ground. And they do. They laugh and fly kites and make flower garlands with her and their mother. They run and jump and giggle and shriek with delight and then sing childhood songs and eat Pocky and drink lemonade until the sun goes down. As the crickets come out to sing them a lullaby they doze, one against mother and one against grandmother.

Temari admires her mother-in-law knowing precisely why Yoshino invited her. She looks at the older woman with a devilish gleam in her eye. "Say goodnight to Hidan, children," she instructs and Yoshino resists the urge to laugh out loud thinking of the impotent little monster buried beneath their feet.

"G'night, Hidan," the raven-haired little girl dutifully mumbles against her mom.

"Night,night Hidan," her blond younger brother echoes with a yawn then lays his head soft and sweet against his grandmother. .

The women laugh softly together as they gather up picnic things and then scoop up sleepy children for the long hike home in the moonlight.

Hidan can have his immortality. They will stick with good old fashioned mortality. After all, living well is the best revenge.


End file.
